A protest rally by pro-Palestine activists near the Seattle Convention Center, Washington.[File] | Image Credit: x.com/NoAz4Apartheid
Microsoft, on Thursday (August 28), dismissed four employees for protesting against the company’s ties with Israel, which has been waging war against Gaza since October 2023. Among the four, two were fired earlier for participating in a sit-in this week at the office of the company’s president.
In a statement on Wednesday, the protest group No Azure for Apartheid said that Anna Hattle and Riki Fameli received voicemails informing them that they had been fired.
The latest to this list are employees named Nisreen Jaradat and Julius Shan. They were terminated “in connection” with demonstrations at Microsoft’s global headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
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“Two additional employees were terminated due to serious violations of established company policies and our code of conduct, including participating in recent on-site demonstrations that created significant safety concerns for our employees,” according to a statement given to CBS News by a Microsoft spokesperson.
In a statement, the software giant explained that the employees were fired because their actions constituted serious violations of company policy, and that the recent protests at their offices had “created significant safety concerns.”
The advocacy group, No Azure for Apartheid, named after Microsoft‘s cloud software ‘Azure’, is demanding that the company sever its business ties with Israel and provide financial compensation to Palestinians.
According to a joint media investigation, an Israeli military surveillance agency is using Azure software to store countless recordings of mobile phone calls made by Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.
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The investigation, conducted by the Guardian, Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, found out that Israel used Azure software for expansive surveillance of Palestinians.
Microsoft, in response, said that it has hired the law firm Covington & Burling LLP to conduct a review of the matter. Meanwhile, other employees have expressed opposition to its business ties with Israel.
